Saturday, July 24, 2004

Dream Jobs

When I was a kid, I wanted to work at Disneyland.

Not just any job at Disneyland, mind you.  I wanted to work at the Haunted Mansion.  Where you got to wear that long, dark green Victorian dress.

(When I was a kid, I never noticed the long, dark green Victorian dresses were made of easy-to-clean cheap polyester.  Then again, perhaps they weren't, then.)

Not just any job at the Haunted Mansion, though.  I wanted to be the person who seated the guests in the "doom buggies."

Here's how it works.  The buggies (which seat "two or three bodies") are on a non-stop track, next to a moving walkway.  The guests step from the waiting area onto the moving walkway, then into their doom buggy.  The lady in the Victorian dress is standing at the front edge of the moving walkway, looking appropriately somber, and directing people in parties of two and three to the appropriate buggies.

And (and this is the best part) -- since she's standing on a moving walkway, she doesn't just stand there.  She paces backwards very slowly, in order to remain standing in the same place relative to the front of the line. 

Man! What a job!  Standing in the nice air conditioned haunted mansion, wearing the pretty Victorian dress, hovering over the edge of the moving walkway as you pace slowly backwards, and -- with appropriate solemnity -- pointing people into buggies as though you were showing them the latest in coffin selections.

I ended up a lawyer instead.  Where did I go wrong?

So... what was your dream job as a kid?

 

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Heck, NZ now I want to be that lady too. You make it sound so much fun. Actually we went to Disney last year and I thought the exact same thing! I guess when I was a kid my dream job was to be Madonna. I wanted to wear whatever I wanted and still have people think it was cool. ~Melissa~

Anonymous said...

christ, I caught an episode of a cop show, I wanted to be the one who made the police man run alot....stupid, stupid, stupid, but then I wanted to be a pony seller, so I guess it just all evened out
Kathleen
http://journals.aol.com/kathlyna22/Upagainstyou

Anonymous said...

omg.  I had so many dream jobs it just wasn't funny.  But since you mentioned Disney....Although I've never been there and hope and pray I do before my life is over.....I used to want to be a mascot.  One of those people in a Goofy costume walking around hugging kids and getting my pic taken.  Now that I'm a "grown up", I realize that it would be a VERY hot job to walk around in that suit in the heat.  Whew!